[FEATURE] A RE-EDUCATION OF THE MISEDUCATION OF THE MISEDUCATION OF LAURYN HILL
The year 2018 marks the 20th birthday of Lauryn Hill’s ‘Miseducation of Lauryn Hill’, which was released on 25th August 1998 under the Ruffhouse and Columbia labels. As time flies, we remember why even today why this album was one of the best R’n’B/neo-soul albums of all time.
If you are still wondering why at the project earned Ms .Hill 10 nominations, five Grammy awards (a first for a female artist) and over 19 million copies sold worldwide, we have one question for you: where have you been all this time? Today, we pay homage to the masterful project that can only be regarded as one of the best projects of all time, regardless of musical genre. The project began production in New York’s Chung King Studios, and finished in Bob Marley’s Tuff Gong studio in Kingston, Jamaica. Even at this point, it would have been difficult to imagine or Ms. Hill what would become of Hill’s first solo project. The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill embodied, ironically, lessons that taught us the true meaning of love, heartbreak, and spirituality.
Way before its time, the album was the first and last of its kind. It encompassed lyrics, choruses, skits and hooks that denounced the plight of fame, the imbalance of motherhood, quest for love, and the intricacies of urban culture that simply couldn’t have been taught in school. Hill’s delivery over the 14-track album is a soulful as it is knowledgeable. From instrumentation, female musical influences, to religion and spirituality, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill changed the game forever.
Understanding the pillars of the album invites you into the mind of a young Lauryn Hill, who depicts a creative expression of the world through her lense. Radical, inspirational, cerebral and passionate in nature, there is a deeper understanding of what the Miseducation of Lauryn Hill represents. The premature nature of what Ms .Hill chooses to write about is clear from the intro all the way to the final song.
To mark the release of the monumental album, Ms. Hill is once again blessing the world with her stage presence once again. If you’re lucky you may be still able to cop tickets here.
Or at the very least, bask in the glory of what was arguably one of the greatest projects of music ever made below. Skipping even one track would be, well, a miseducation in itself. There’s just something about this album that takes you back to a time where you were far less conscious about what it meant to grow and love that can only be explained through this historical album.
